Passionate educator inspires next generation of students and teachers

Her impressive 18-year career began in London where a part-time job as a nanny made her realise she has a passion for learning.

Ms Langford would then return to her hometown of Tamworth where she was offered a temporary teaching position at Oxley Vale, and she never looked back.

Now she's worked her way up to assistant principal of pedagogy [the method of how teachers teach, in theory and in practice] and learning and was recently recognised at a prestigious ceremony at the state's Parliament House.

"Basically a big part of my role is making learning clear for students through how we teach, how we present information, and how we get them to reflect themselves as learners," Ms Langford told the Leader.

The educator is one of just 57 teachers from across NSW who were awarded a Highly Accomplished Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation at the end of October.

"It came as a surprise because I received my accreditation certificate last year and I thought that was it. When I received an email inviting me to Parliament House I was taken aback," Ms Langford said.

Ms Langford was accompanied on her trip to Sydney by both her principal and year two teacher Jillian Porter.

The assistant principal said she invited Ms Porter because she has the potential to be Oxley Vale Public's next HALT.

Ms Porter says she hopes to follow in Ms Langford's example.

"She's so inspirational. She's a true leader and guide. I could say so many things," Ms Porter said.

"She sees the best in her students and brings out the best in everybody. We all benefit from the outstanding knowledge and skills she brings to the job."

One of the major contributors to Ms Langford getting her HALT accreditation was her contribution to students' "visual learning".

She designed characters for different "learning dispositions," which eventually evolved into the school's mascots.

The characters represent curiosity, resilience, embracing challenge, risk taking, persistence and reflectiveness.

"I started out by writing a picture book, using that writing skill from many years ago when I wanted to be a journalist," Ms Langford said.

From there her project grew and grew, and she eventually had the book professionally illustrated and kid-sized costumes designed by a company in Sydney.

Despite ringing endorsements from her colleagues and an illustrious teaching career, the journey to becoming a HALT was an odyssey for Ms Langford.

On top of her already-full workload, the assistant principal spent nearly three years gathering evidence of her work and building a case for why she qualifies as a HALT.

"The reason I started to do it in the first place was as a reflective practise, so I could look at what I do and what I can do better," she said.

But less than a year in, a hard drive with ten years of memories from her teaching life was corrupted, including the work she'd done on her accreditation.

"I lost all of my evidence and didn't have a backup. I nearly stopped then because it was a huge amount of work and I didn't know if I could do it all again," Ms Langford said.

But the hard-working single mum says she's the kind of person who can't leave a job unfinished.

With support and encouragement from her two seven-year-old twins Ms Langford pressed through the challenge.

Through it all the assistant principal said the only thing she'd change if she could wave a magic wand would be giving herself and her teachers more time to support and nurture their students.

"Things are more complex these days, kids have more complex issues which has changed the expectations and workload for teachers," Ms Langford said.

"There's also a lot more administrative tasks we're responsible for that take away from our focus on the kids."

With her kind heart and passion for learning, Tamworth is undoubtedly richer for having Ms Langford at the helm of the region's educational leadership.